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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23262754">For Love or Money</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/musette22/pseuds/musette22'>musette22</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr drabbles [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drabble, Falling In Love, Heir Bucky Barnes, Kidnapping, M/M, Mercenary Steve Rogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:29:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,023</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23262754</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/musette22/pseuds/musette22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A little imagine/drabble based on <a href="https://thestovetops.tumblr.com/post/190502172004/darkstucky-au-in-which-bucky-is-the-son-of-a">this amazing Tumblr post</a> by @thestovetops. Posted to AO3 for easier reading.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tumblr drabbles [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672630</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>88</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>For Love or Money</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steve doesn’t enjoy being a mercenary, but it’s the only life he knows. </p><p>After he was orphaned at a young age, he was taken in by dodgy uncle who was the head of an underground criminal gang that groomed him to do their dirty work. Initially, they used Steve for fraud and theft operations because of his angelic, trustworthy face, and his slight frame which could get him out of sticky situations easily. But when he grew into a strapping young man with a mean right hook, they started giving him the more violent jobs. Steve hated those jobs, even more than he hated the lying and cheating, but it’s not like he had a choice. His uncle had done an outstanding job of convincing Steve he was no good at anything but lying, cheating and punching, and worth nothing more than the money he could make him.</p><p>Unfortunately for Steve’s uncle, he’d always had a tendency to underestimated Steve. After a massive FBI raid to the gang’s headquarters, Steve was the only one to escape unscathed, disappearing without a trace. After that, the only option open to someone like him was to join a band of mercenaries. Due to his unwanted but useful skillset, Steve quickly become one of the most notorious soldiers out there.</p><p>Then, one day, Steve was hired by a crime lord to kidnap the spoiled son of business magnate George Barnes’ for a huge ransom, and theoretically, it should’ve been a fairly easy, straightforward job. Just take the kid, keep him alive and hidden, and then exchange him for a substantial sum of money.</p><p>Bucky Barnes, however, is <em>not</em> what Steve was expecting.</p><p>First off, Bucky is beautiful. It’s… disconcerting. In his line of work, Steve is used to seeing his captives as nothing but a commodity to be traded in for hard cash, but being in close proximity to Bucky, it’s impossible for Steve not to notice those fiery eyes, or that lush, wavy hair, or that pretty, pouty mouth. There’s something about the kid that makes Steve sympathize with him more than he usually would with his victims, and eventually, that something drives him to take off Bucky’s head cover and gag. Initially, all Bucky does is curse him, but even that is endearing, somehow. He may be pretty, but his language is anything but ladylike, and Steve finds himself admiring the boy’s creative use of profanities.</p><p>When he eventually calms down, Bucky tells Steve this isn’t the first time he’s been kidnapped, and his father will pay the ransom soon enough, just like he did the previous times. Not that his family actually cares about him at all, Bucky adds bitterly. The only reason they seem to need him back is that he’s their only son, and is expected to follow in father’s footsteps – the only heir to the family company and fortune.</p><p>Steve tries to keep an objective mind, but Bucky’s story inevitably resonates with him. He recognizes there’s a common ground between them, a bitter parallel in the notion that both of them have been made to believe that they’re only worth as much as someone is prepared to pay (for) them.</p><p>Slowly, over the course of the next two nights, Steve and Bucky start to open up to each other. At first, the atmosphere is understandably still strained: Bucky is Steve’s captive, after all. But Steve makes sure to treat him as well as he’s able and finds that he actually enjoys Bucky’s company. Without meaning to, they share things they’ve never shared with anyone before, thoughts and hopes and dreams, and Steve is pleased to find that despite the fact that life has given them both miserably little to laugh about, they share a similar sense of humor. When Bucky laughs for the first time, subjecting Steve to the full force of his bright, lovely grin, Steve’s breath catches in his throat and he knows he’s in serious trouble.</p><p>He tries to tell himself to back off then, to stop treating Bucky like a friend, let alone more, and put his professional, dispassionate mask back on. But it’s too late. There’s nothing he can do about the warmth, the fondness and affection, that’s taken up residence in his chest.</p><p>And with that, Steve realizes that he can’t do this. He can’t trade Bucky in for cold, hard money. He has to let him go.</p><p>So that night, with pain in his heart, Steve tells Bucky he’s free to go. For a moment, Bucky just blinks at him, tells him he doesn’t understand. Steve has no choice but to admit he’s developed feelings for him, and can’t keep him prisoner any longer. To Steve’s utter surprise, Bucky just crosses his arms and tells him, <em>no</em>, he’s not going anywhere. Steve gapes at him and calls him an idiot, orders him to leave while he has the chance, but Bucky counters with “or what, you’re going to hurt me?”</p><p>Steve deflates, realizing he lost the argument.</p><p>Then, Bucky steps closer, gently taking Steve’s hands in his, forcing Steve to look him in the eye before telling him he’s in love with him too. And despite the impossibility of their situation, Steve’s heart soars. <em>Bucky loves him back</em>. For the first time in his life, Steve loves and is loved in return. Their first kiss is magical, and maybe Bucky actually bewitches him somehow, because next thing Steve knows, Bucky has managed to convince him to go ahead with the swap as planned and make Bucky’s family leave the money in the arranged location. But instead of Bucky going back, the two of them will take the money and run.</p><p>Together.</p><p>And they do. Somehow, their crazy, impossible plan works, and Steve, whose many unsavory contacts come in remarkably handy in a situation like this, manages to get them both a new identity and a temporary safe house somewhere in Alabama. Eventually, they’ll go abroad, start a new life together, buy a nice house and whatever else they need with the dirty ransom money. But for now, they don’t need anything but each other.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! Come and shout with me about these two on <a href="https://musette22.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> if you want!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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